Mexican Romney

COLONIA JUAREZ, MEXICO - JULY 10: From left, Karen Romney sits with her grandson, Tyton, and brother in law Leighton Romney at Sunday lunch after church service in Colonia Juarez, Mexico in July 2011. United States Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's family migrated to Mexico over 100 years ago after being granted asylum from Mexican President Porfirio Diaz after they had been pursued by the U.S. authorities for polygamy. (Dominic Bracco II / Prime For The Washington Post) (Romney is currently running for the Republican nomination.)Dominic Bracco II / Prime / For The (Washington Post) (Romney's rugged Mormon ancestors sowed riches in Mexico - Yahoo! News) Before the Mexican Revolution, more than 4,000 Mormons were given refuge in Mexico by dictator Porfirio Diaz, buttressed by ideas of support for religious freedom espoused by Mexico's founding father, Benito Juarez.
Mitt's great-grandfather Miles P. Romney was one of them. He married five women over the course of his life, and joined the first wave of settlers in Mexico.
In 1867, Miles P. was told to take a second wife by Brigham Young, who took over the leadership of the Mormon church after founder Joseph Smith was killed . Miles' first wife, Hannah Hood Hill, Mitt's great-grandmother, was at first unhappy but accepted the decision because of her faith and ended up living happily in a polygamous family, the travel log recounts.
Miles P. was a lover of theater who staged elaborate productions of Hamlet and other works by Shakespeare. He was dedicated to education, opening the first school in the colony where one of his wives taught under willow trees.
Those early days were difficult for the settlers - photos show them living in rock dugouts with no shoes and little food. They hunted deer and wild turkey for meat. But they created a haven where the polygamist families could stay together.
The Mormon church officially banned polygamy in 1890, but many spiritual weddings continued to take place in the colonies and Miles P. married his fifth wife seven years after the ban.
By the next generation, that of Mitt Romney's grandfather Gaskell, the practice was all but non-existent. Mitt Romney has called polygamy "bizarre".
George, in his recollections, calls his grandfather's other wives his "aunts". Although he found the idea of polygamy "repugnant", he admired the family around him.